


Punchline of a Prophecy

by ViolentlyRed



Series: Punchline of a Prophecy [1]
Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Max is just a small, Panic Attack, gentle and caring david, max deserves to be happy, sad bean and i'd easily die for him, tag to Parent's Day, you thOught id let an angst opRtunity like this pass by
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-04
Updated: 2018-04-04
Packaged: 2019-04-18 11:24:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14212089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViolentlyRed/pseuds/ViolentlyRed
Summary: Max feels like shit after the events of the day. Whatever, it's fine. (It's not)





	Punchline of a Prophecy

**Author's Note:**

> First Camp Camp fic, was kind of sucked in by this stupid (and wonderful) show. Max is a real kiddo, David tries his best, I love them both. 
> 
> There is a panic attack and description of thereof, go forth but be warned. Or, don't go forth, if it's not your thing. But everyone else, enjoy.

So, yeah. Max feels like shit. A lot.

They get back to the camp amidst mass chaos as Ered's two gay dads are throwing Campbell into the back of a police vehicle.

"Christ," Gwen says. Max agrees.

He sees everybody's parents again. And he feels all over again the gentle tearing of loneliness, the shit feeling of a sinking heart among all of these guardians. Some of them might be cringey and embarrassing, uncles and golddiggers, in Nikki's case, but they all had something in common: they all showed up to see their kids. They all came for this stupid day, even fucking Nerf's incarcerated mother came, for Christ's sake! The woman is in handcuffs, and she still came!

He tries to swallow down the sadness as he steps out of the campmobile. Everyone's parents at least look mildly concerned. Max looks at Gwen and David, but they seem very, very occupied at the moment.

"Uhh, hello campers and camper parents! Sorry for the... uh... spectacle," David tries to say cheerily. He peers at his watch. "We have about an hour and half until the parents board the bus, so use this time to chat a little with your kid while our Quartermaster prepares a little dessert!"

Quartermaster grunts and shuffles into the mess hall. Max watches as all of the parents tend to their kids.

Nikki's mom pockets her phone and crouches down for a moment in front of her daughter. She gets an uneasy look on her face and places her manicured hands on Nikki's shoulders. "Nicolette, that man didn't do anything... _bad_ to you, right?"

Nikki looks at her mother's concerned face for a second and then breaks out into a grin. "Not at all, mom. He's just crazy and has a serious gambling problem coupled with crippling moral problems. Other than that he's actually pretty alright!"

Nikki's mom looks less than convinced, but she ruffles her daughter's hair anyway.

Max feels tears well up in his eyes again. Even though Nikki and her mom are completely different people, and Nikki's mom might be glued to her phone and kind of a slut, it's easy to see that there's still a caring relationship. She still acknowledges that she has a child. At least Nikki's mom is still involved, even just a little bit. A lot of the parents are like that, actually, very quirky but still somewhat engaged. Max would take somewhat engaged over completely absent any day.

He sighs and shoves his hands into his sweatshirt. The day had started okay, really. He had hardened himself to the idea when he saw the fliers the first time, so he was supposed to be all good. He had slipped around content on avoiding all of the day, and it was only when Campbell had forced him and David and Gwen to be a stupid, pretend family that everything started to suck.

He feels like he has a hole in his chest. The pizza had made it better, and it was really nice of David and Gwen, and Max gets that, but no matter how much they care, it doesn't change the fact that Max's real parents don't.

He kicks at the dirt. David said that he deserved to be happy, and just thinking about it makes Max's heart ache. Because the fact that this fucking camp counselor, the guy he's been terrorizing for weeks now, is able to look at him with his stupid face and say genuinely, kindly, that Max deserves to be happy, it just - he can't really even understand it.

Because Max has never been told that before.

Because he kind-of doesn't deserve to be.

Everyone's parents are henning over them and talking to them, David is speaking frantically to Ered's dads, Gwen is kneeling next to Space Kid and talking to Buzz _fucking_ Aldrin. Max has somehow found himself in the middle of the group.

He stands there, surrounded by families, trying to breathe past the lump in his throat, one kid in the epicenter of this fucking shitshow.

In medias res, he cries.

Max tries to will the tears away, _fuck shit no_ , tries to push all of the feelings back into the hole that they belong in. He realizes he's shaking when he tries to wipe his wet eyes with a trembling fist.

Everything is so crowded. He feels so utterly alone right now, but he's surrounded and it's terrifying. He sinks to his knees in the dirt and watches the commotion around him. His heart starts to beat faster and faster, he starts to breathe harder and harder.

He doesn't realize he's panicking until he can't get air into his lungs.

Oh, god. He can't breathe.

Someone hesitantly taps his shoulder. It's Neil. "Max? Are you okay?"

It's like trying to suck in air through a shitty coffee straw, his lungs heave in useless gulps and fretted gasps. Panic and terror roars in his ears, a million bells and alarms are ringing relentlessly. He tries to focus on the dirt beneath his scrabbling fingers, tries to focus on the noises but it all becomes overwhelming and muffled and sharp and he can feel tears running down his cheeks as he stares at a patch of grass, _oh god, he can't breathe_

 

_He can't breathe_

 

  
_He can't breathe_

Someone crouches in front of him. "Okay, kid, hang on." He smells Gwen's stupid, cheap flowery lotion. "David!"

God, Max is such a fucking burden, _he can't breathe_ , he's so useless, _he can't breathe_ , he doesn't have anyone _, he doesn't have anyone_

 

"Max?"

  
Skin-deep sensations, someone's hands on his face, rubbing through his hair and on his back, dark, soothing voice, patient, "Breathe, just breathe, Max, you're okay, just breathe..."

  
Max feels like the world is crumbling and cracking apart. His ribs feel like they're being snapped with wire cutters, his brain is on fire, his head spins and his lungs draw in blackened smoke of useless kids with parents who don't care don't care _don't care_

 

  
He feels his hand being pressed a heaving chest, someone's overexaggerated breaths and rumbling voice dancing beneath his palm.

"Try to breathe like me, Max," David says, "Come on, you can do it, I know you can. In, two, three, out, two, three."

Max struggles to mimic, to pull his head above the water.

"There you go, that's it. Breathe slow, you're alright, you're okay."

A hand settles weightily on his knee, grounding and heavy. "You're alright, Max."

After a lot of effort, he breathes a little easier, but not much. It's still hard to get air. His vision clears marginally, gray speckles recede, and he is able to make out the wide-eyed but steady-calm face of David. He can still feel the tears dripping down his cheeks.

David talks gently and direct. "You with me?"

Max sniffles and nods. His head is throbbing, he can't fucking believe he just had a panic attack in front of the entire camp, he can't believe fucking David has to calm him down. He wants to apologize but the words won't come out of his mouth, they stick in the back of his throat like peanut butter.

David rubs circles on his back, under his sweatshirt and into the fabric of his yellow camp tee.

Max feels like the world is melting.

He realizes that there are no more people around him. He doesn't know where everyone went. It's just him and David.

"Where did everyone go?" he croaks. Because that's the thing he's going to focus on right now, the lack of staring families and worried parents. God, he's a fucking mess.

He feels... really, really sad. Like everything has been stripped away, and now there's just hurt. Just a lot of hurt.

"Max?" David asks gently.

And he says his name so quietly, so genuinely that Max can't help the way his breath hitches on a sob in the back of his throat, he can't help the trembling of his hands and the way he knots his fingers in the stupid bandanna tied around David's neck and holds on for dear life.

"I'm sorry," Max whispers into David's chest.

David holds him close with his big hands, gentle and temperate and everything Max hasn't had in his life for so long. "Oh, Max," he says in that voice from the pizza parlor, bare of optimism, just tired and insightful. "It's okay."

And Max can't believe that David still... still talks to him. He can't believe that David still wants _good_ for him.

Sometimes, it's kind of hard to believe anyone would. Because it's not like he gives people many reasons to. And he knows that, of course, he actively chooses to be a little shit, he actively chooses to be the worst, because the world is shit and no one cares, and blah blah blah.

But, sometimes? It just really stings. And he's reminded that some people do care, and they shouldn't. He doesn't deserve it.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" Max chokes out, even though he sounds like he's in a cheesy teenage movie playing the mean girl who's crying in the bathroom.

David rests his chin on Max's head. "Stop that. Max, you're here. You're at camp." He sighs. "Max, we really care about you."

Max cries even harder. Quietly, undignified, like he's not allowed to, almost. It feels wrong, he doesn't-

He doesn't want anyone to care.

"I won't tell," David whispers.

It's easy to be alone, it's easier for everyone else, it's easier for him. On the surface, skin-deep, it's easier for him.

A thumb runs along his temple. Spoken fiercely, like the last words of a dying man, like the punchline of a prophecy:

"You are not alone, Max."

Max crumples and holds onto David tighter than he's ever held on to anything before.

-

After the sob-fest is over and he's peeled himself from David's chest, Max makes David swear again not to tell.

Except they've all already seen Max freaking the fuck out, so why should them knowing about a hug make anything worse?

David swears anyway. "I promise, Max. I promise."

Max squints at him seriously, even though the effect is probably lost in his puffy face. "I'll skin you alive, you dumbass."

David raises a hand, ever a boyscout. "You have my word. Sparrow's honor."

Max sniffles and scrubs at his swollen eyes. "David, I fucking hate you. I want you to know that." Even though it lacks its usual scorn.

David's eyes look sad, but he smiles. "Is the universe balanced a little better now?"

Max kicks at the dirt and nods.

David stands up and sighs. His knees pop. "Everyone is in the Mess Hall. All of the parents are leaving, you can go hang out in your tent if-"

"No, it's okay," Max says. He blinks and slaps his cheeks a few times. "Let's go." He starts to walk towards the doors, but stops when David speaks.

"Hey, Max?"

He turns around and looks at David. There's still a smile on his face, he seems to have regained his optimism a bit, thank god. Not that Max cares. "Yeah, David?"

"Even though you hate it here sometimes, I just want you to know that you're a really important part of the family here. And we all love you."

Max almost gags. But his heart lifts a little, it's really fucking touching, despite it all. He feels a warmth in his chest. And he hates David even more for tacking this onto him in his vulnerable state.

"Fuck you, David," Max says. He turns around and walks towards the wooden doors but stops in his tracks and gives a tiny smile to the ground. "I know."

David comes up behind him and ruffles his hair. "Good." He swings open the door and holds it open. "Come now, young Max. As Gwen would say, "Let us update ourselves on the continuing and altogether unsettling trash saga of Nikki and Neil's mom and dad!""

Max can't stop the quirk of a smile that pokes at the corner of his mouth.

 

 

(Ered's two gay fathers eventually clear the camp to continue running.

"I am impressed with the manner in which you handled the situation with that small, angry boy back there," Mr. Miller says.

"You seem to have some semblance of what to do here, and that's all we can really ask from a summer camp," the other Mr. Miller says. "That kid was really struggling back there, but you displayed quite the control."

The first Mr. Miller nods. "Also, Ered refuses to go into the Flower Scouts, so we have nowhere else to send her. That's besides the point, though. You and your co-counselor seem to really understand these kids. I can see no reason why this camp needs to cease running, as long as you have a steady profit and pay your fees." He sighs and looks around the mess hall at the parents and their kids. "Though this day was a fucked-up mess, you are doing some real good here."

David just beams. Because that's all he can really hope for, to be honest.)

 

 

 


End file.
